


Cooling

by vmprsm



Series: LC Destin [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Tech talk, The Finalizer, a deep excuse to insert a character, destin suffers, just a mention of darth tantrum, thats pretty much what this series will be, theres 80k people on the finalizer why can i have one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-28 22:30:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8465410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vmprsm/pseuds/vmprsm
Summary: Kylo's wrecked something again. Shocking. And of course, who to fix it but the chief systems engineer?





	

**Author's Note:**

> i have been blessed and tortured by caez and kylo and so i finally got the nerve to post this thing i wrote like 6 months ago about my character and a little interaction with hux. original characters in star wars for the win, fight me.

Nonononono, this was  not happening again.

 

In through the nose….more in through the nose, hold,  hold , and out through the nose. It was uncouth to breathe through the mouth, but the rush of air through her nostrils was likely just as noisy.

 

It wouldn't matter, no one would hear it over the sparking sounds and critical misalignment sirens, if anyone were in the room with her. 

 

She had been the first to arrive, the alarms routing straight to her datapad as the water management system for the  entire forehalf of L deck went offline, messages pinging in one after another as water main hatches automatically closed to keep the precious resource contained and status markers went red from a sudden lack of feedback from the wiring. 

 

Her boots slapped through the inch of water across the floor, beads rolling off their high shined tops. Wrecked. Absolutely wrecked. They would need  days to fix this damage, and until then the turbocannons would need to stay offline for this sector, not to mention the pulse cannon and the smaller laser turrets--

 

In a fit of irritation that surely could never compare to the one that caused this mess, she yanked off her cap and threw it to the ground, stomping her foot next to it. 

 

“I don’t believe that will fix it.”

 

She whirled, bangs flying from their precarious position tucked behind her left ear, snapping immediately to attention when her eyes met the stripes on the man’s jacket.

 

“General, Sir.”

 

His face was cold, and weary in a way that said he’d seen far too many scenes such as the one behind her. Truth was, he had. General Hux was the only one who even had a modicum of control over Lord Ren, and as a result he was almost always present to observe the damage from one of his fits. So was she. 

 

“At ease. I understand the sentiment.” His voice had a wry tone, as if he wished he could show his frustration so openly. She saw it in the lines between his eyebrows as he pulled them down to look over Lord Ren’s latest work. He moved from the doorway, unconcerned of the water that was rapidly draining out into the hall, to stand beside her. She slowly turned, frowning deeply at the dark red gashes. 

 

“I received only the hatch closure alert, full damage report?”

 

Taking a moment to silence the loudest of the alarms, she then pulled in another breath before starting to speak, detailing the systems that had been mangled, and those that would be affected during repairs. She and the General now had a strange, delicate relationship of sorts, as much as any could have with the commanding officer of the First Order fleet’s biggest starship. They often both ended up at the scene of Lord Ren’s crimes against the innocent  Finalizer , and they would settle into a calm as she explained the issues and they haggled over repairs. She was always pushing to repair faster, willing to take over more management of other systems while the techs were occupied. He always declined, setting them to a reasonable timeline. Now and then she would inject some of her own ideas into the discussion, ideas to improve or replace the system in question. The first time he had looked at her sideways, barely turning his head to take in her sharp cheekbones and overly wide lips as she looked at him with neither fear nor trace of being unsure. That particular time he had also declined, sighting budget and the inability at current to deviate from schedule for the necessary parts, but she hoped that at least, somewhere in his vast mind, he tucked away her ideas for later. He never seemed to outright dismiss her thoughts. 

 

As she ran to the end of her mental list of repairs she lapsed into silence, waiting for him to begin the debate. She was sure she could get this fixed in a standard week if she pulled the techs from management of the cannons, they’d be offline anyways, and she started tapping around on her pad, opening a mass message to her crew. 

 

“Lieutenant.”

 

Her head flicked up, catching his eyes. She didn’t find the General is intimidating as some officers did, likely from being extremely secure in her own position. Not to toot her own horn, but without her the ship would be in a bit of a mess. Mass systems managers didn’t grow on consoles. “Lieutenant Commander.” she replied. She also didn’t much care about her rank, but knew he did. 

 

His eyes jumped to the band on her arm and back up. He grimaced momentarily before smoothing it out. “Yes. The Navy branch always…” The Navy branch of the First Order military was something of a strange fit. Almost the entire command chain was filled with unconventionally trained officers, the focus of their studies geared heavily to scientific academia. All of the doctors and nurses in the medbay were Navy, the technicians, anyone who had their hands in physically running the ship or its people. On the other hand, most of the actual command, the navigators, bridge crews, weapons managers, TIE pilots, etc, were Army branch. Neither branch would be caught dead actually  fighting , thats what Stormtroopers were for, but they rarely crossed paths when all was well. Hence, she and the General only saw each other when things were decidedly  not well. 

 

She dared to shrug a shoulder. “If you’d like to send formal requests through Admiral Doshir, I would only ask that you give me a short gameplan now, so I can start reorganizing shifts.” 

 

He stood silent a moment, towering over her not-quite-short frame. She was widely built, with broader shoulders than most women (aside from Captain Phasma, that woman was a  goddess ), which made her just over average height seem shorter. General Hux was built like a pine tree, all height and no width. She could tell, the way his coat fluttered out when he walked. 

 

“Formal requests are a necessity…” he glanced at her again. She didn’t blame him, it was hard to look at the still-smoking wall for too long, “I believe it’s time I learned your name. We have passed the point of pretending to be unaquainted.” 

 

She blinked at him. “...Destin, Sir.” 

 

“Lieutenant Commander Destin.” He said it like he was committing it to memory. He probably was. It was no secret that General Hux was a genius, she wouldn’t be surprised if he had some interesting ways to manage his huge memory. “Well. I know you want to move the men from the cannons. Don’t. You’ll need them to be continually monitoring and testing their functionality as you install the new cooling system. Move a quarter of the hyperdrive crew, we are staying in this area of space for the next few days.”

 

She was making notes hurriedly on her pad, but paused when the words reflected back at her. Did he…?

 

When she looked up he was giving her a calm look. “The new cooling system, am I correct to assume you are referring to the one with the copper-banded tubing and high-speed vertical fanning wave array?”

 

“The one precisely. There was a good price on the tubing for our last shipment agreement with IO-sys. We will test out the sector, and if it does well we will consider replacing the major weapons decks next.”

 

She had to struggle to hold in a beaming grin. This was the first time he had acquiesed to one of her system designs. It wasn’t major, but this could have implications. If only she could get her paws on those gorgeous ion engines…

 

It was a secondary struggle to push the flood of thoughts and plans away to look back at him with a somewhat calm expression. “Yes, Sir. I will begin a materials manifest, and have a working timeline to Admiral Doshir within the next cycle. I will have a crew here within the shift, to remove the destroyed parts and clear the water.” The standing water was now really only a small puddle, spread thin likely a good few meters into the hallway. It would evaporate in the artifically dry air, given time, but not before the next trooper patrol came through.

 

“Send them to me, secondarily to the Admiral. I’d like to stay abreast of this project.” He turned on his heel, away from her and ending the conversation. She tried not to swallow too loudly at the idea of sending reports directly to the ship’s commander. If anyone loved the  Finalizer for the beauty of engineering she was more than her, it was General Hux. She could not mess this up. And she wouldn’t, she had never designed an unsafe system in her life. Watching him go, she saw him pause in the doorway, door held open by emergency procedure. 

 

“Destin,” he said over his shoulder, and she wasn’t sure whether she liked or was made uncomfortable by his use of her name, “I want the turbocannons functional in two cycles.” 

 

“Yes, sir!” That was a day less than the estimate she was going to give,  finally she could give her crew a challenge. She gave him a salute that still felt strange to her recently-civilian hands. 

  
“And get your hair cut.” He disappeared from the doorway, turning towards the bow of the ship, and she cringed. It had been too much to hope he didn’t notice. After tucking her bangs back again, she pulled a pin from her pocket and pinned it back. Satisfied, she swooped down at the hips, snatching her sopping cap from the floor and exiting the room. No use in staring at the damage, she had work to do. Honestly, if she ever got a chance, she may even thank the mysterious violence-prone commander for breaking her ship.


End file.
